Hong Kong Open: Pearly-Thinaah reach second final of the year

Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah reached the Hong Kong Open women's doubles final after posting a fantastic performance to beat Baek Ha-na-Lee Soo-hee 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 on Saturday morning.

This is the Malaysians' second consecutive victory over the South Koreans, having ousted them in the Korea Open semis a fortnight ago.

This victory at the Hong Kong Coliseum was as clinical, as Tan-Thinaah overcame a sluggish start to find their rhythm against their more fancied opponents for the deserved victory.

In the first game, Tan-Thinaah saved two game points at 18-20 to reel in four straight points for the 22-20 victory.

Baek-Lee, who are second in the world, stormed back to take the second game with a more aggressive display and it was point for point in the first half of the deciding game.

But Tan-Thinaah turned on the style after the interval, turning in a solid defensive display and finding fine winners at the net to come away with the win.

This marks the Malaysians third victory over the South Koreans in five meetings.

The world number eight pair will now go on to contest in their second final of the year against either Kim Seo-yeong-Kong Hee-yong (South Korea) or Tan Ning-Liu Sheng Shu (China) on Sunday.